


A Mother's Love

by Bittodeath



Series: Prompts [11]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Fix-It, Force Visions, Force-Sensitive Shmi Skywalker, Gen, Slight horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26546260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittodeath/pseuds/Bittodeath
Summary: Written for the prompt: Shmi Skywalker gets Force Dreams warning her about Palpy, and sets out to protect her son.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Shmi Skywalker, Sheev Palpatine & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Prompts [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865308
Comments: 4
Kudos: 172





	A Mother's Love

**Author's Note:**

> The world needs more badass!Shmi.

_“Mom”_

Shmi turned, and there her boy was. Head hunched, and arms wrapped around himself, shivering.

“Ani!”  
“I’m cold”, he said, and she started to walk towards him.

Her little boy, looking the same way he did the last time she saw him, eight years ago, when he was freed. When he left. _Don’t look back_ , she had told him – and he hadn’t.

“Mom, help me!” he begged, a young teenager now, his feet slowly sinking into the floor as though it were a quicksand.  
“I’m coming”, she replied, and hastened her pace.

It felt like every time she seemed to make progressed, he was just that much farther.

_“MOM!”_ , he yelled, now a young adult, desperate, reaching out for her.

A figure shrouded in darkness stood behind him, arms wrapped around his arms and waist, clawed fingers sinking into his chest and blood dripping from the wounds. The figure lifted its hooded head and she caught sight of a sadistic grin, and eyes glowing yellow. Anakin screamed louder as the fingers sank deeper, knees buckling. He didn’t fall, held up by the figure, its darkness slowly wrapping around her son like so many murderous hands.

_“ANI!”_ she yelled back, reaching out, running.

The darkness roared, and her son disappeared with a scream. She turned wildly on her heels, searching for him, for his bright presence – but there was nothing, only darkness.

“Surely they will recognize your talent soon”, a voice, smooth, dripping with honey, said.

It sent a shiver down her spine. The cruellest masters had that kind of voice. She turned again.

“I don’t know”, a young man replied, and- it was her son, and stars he was _beautiful_. “I feel like they’re scared of me.”  
“They fear what they don’t understand”, the honey-dripping voice replied.  
“Don’t listen, Ani!” she begged.

An older man in rich, embroidered robes appeared, putting a familiar hand on her son’s shoulder, and Anakin sagged in distress.

“Don’t listen!” she repeated, but he couldn’t hear her.

The familiar hand turned clawed, sinking into her son’s flesh, and the fatherly head lifted to meet her gaze. Watery blue eyes turned glowing, corrupted gold-

Shmi woke up screaming, drenched in sweat, her heart beating madly. At her side, Cliegg switched on the light and grabbed her arms.

“Shmi? Shmi what is it?”  
“Anakin”, she breathed, still seeing the monster digging into her son. “Anakin is in danger.” She gulped, and looked at him. “I have to help.”  
“Calm down, Shmi”, Cliegg said gently. “It was only a nightmare.”

She had no idea how she knew that, but she knew it wasn’t just a dream. Still, she let her husband comfort her.

The dream came back. Again, and again, and again. She was hardly sleeping at all, barely eating.

She woke up with a scream. Again. Cliegg switched on the light.

“Tomorrow”, he said. “Tomorrow, I’m taking you to Anchorhead. I’ll secure you passage to Coruscant. Go to the Jedi Temple, Shmi. Go find your son.”

She sobbed for long into the night, held safe in her husband’s arms.

*

The voyage hadn’t been without its trials, but Shmi was finally on Coruscant. She adjusted the strap of her bag over her shoulder, the fall of her red coat, and the blaster on her hip, all presents from her new acquaintance and friend, a boisterous pirate named Hondo.

“To the Temple Place”, she said as she climbed into a taxi-speeder.

Hondo had braided some of her hair before they parted, with red ribbons and promises to meet again. The ribbons felt like a reminder of the affection he held for her, imbued with the gods’ touch. She touched them to give herself strength, as well as the japur snippet Cliegg had given her for protection before she went.

The Jedi Temple loomed over her, heavy and light, and her heart pounded already at the idea of climbing those many steps. She did, feeling like each step brought her closer to her son, filling her with certainty. This place welcomed her – like it was home. With each new step, she felt herself becoming lighter, her worries carried away by the gentle light that had always guided her. The gods were with her, they had always been – how else could she have borne Anakin without a father? How else could she have birthed him without dying in the heat of the cargo holding her prisoner? How else could he have survived slavery, and meeting with the Tusken raiders?

With each _step_ , she opened herself up to the gods’ touch, welcoming it and calming herself down. She walked towards the guards, their masks already turned to her. They were… surprised. Bewildered.

“Hello, Master Jedi”, she greeted simply. “I wish to see Anakin Skywalker.”

The guards looked at each other through their masks.

“I believe Padawan Skywalker has just come back from a mission”, one of them finally said. “He’ll be in the Council’s Chamber for a report with his Master. Someone will guide you there, if you don’t mind waiting, lady…?”  
“Call me Shmi”, she said with a smile, and nodded at the young child who’d come running.

The Jedi child guided her into the Temple, in its large, open-aired hallways and arched ceilings. She didn’t miss the way passing Jedi looked at her – like they had never seen anything like her. With each step, she was closer to Anakin – and closer to the darkness looming around him. She felt its threat on her skin, like oil trying to choke her. Eventually, though, she arrived at two doors, which opened as she stepped forward.

“Come in, come in”, a voice called, and she came forward.

Her gaze settled on the strange, green creature that had called, its ears pointed up with wonder and curiosity. She smiled at its curious prodding and-

There he was, looking as shell-shocked as she could feel him into her heart. Her bright little star, her fierce dragon. Her Anakin.

“Ani”, she breathed.  
“Mom”, he breathed, and took two steps forward, and-

He was in her arms again, taller, stronger, but shaking like a leaf, holding her as tight as he could.

“Why- What brought you here, mom?” he finally asked, his eyes shining with emotion and happiness.  
“You are in danger, Ani”, she said, squeezing his hands. “The gods sent me dreams of you, again and again and again. Of darkness tearing into you and rending you to pieces. It bears the face of a friend, but it is only wanting to destroy you, my son.”

She knew he believed her. He would always believe her, above anything, anyone else.

“Is there anything more, Mom? Did the gods tell you how to keep me safe?” he asked her pressing, ignoring the indignant Jedi Masters around them.  
“It showed me the mask it bears”, she replied. “Chancellor Palpatine is evil, Anakin.”

Her son stood still.

“The Chancellor has been nothing but kind towards me”, he finally said.  
“Do you remember the fly-traps at Gardulla’s?” she asked.

He had been little, but… He nodded.

“Yes. They lured the flies with honey, and-”

He stopped, understanding what she meant.

“I’m the fly lured by the honey-trap”, he said in a strangled voice.  
“You are safe, now”, she replied, cupping his face between her hands. “The gods didn’t give you to me for you to be devoured by the Fanged god.”

Shmi ran, with all the fury of a mother, and teared apart the darkness with fire-glowing hands, with the benediction of a thousand mothers before her. She sank her ichor-dripping hands into the chest of the beast, and ripped out its still beating heart.

_“You will not touch my son”_ , she snarled at the collapsing darkness.

Two days after Shmi Skywalker’s arrival at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine died of a heart-attack, three months before the end of his mandate. Later investigations showed he was a Sith Lord infiltrated into the Senate.

A new light, finally unshielded, shone in the Temple – calling back home all its lost children.

_“That’s not what I had in mind”, Obi-Wan Kenobi said, looking at his redeemed apprentice._

_Anakin Skywalker, the mask of Darth Vader burnt on a forest moon eons ago, smirked confidently._

_“But it worked!”_

_A little, green Master chuckled._

_“Work, it did. Good work, Master Skywalker.”_

**Author's Note:**

> (Force-Eldritch!Shmi.)


End file.
